I’d like to say that I have some fantastic new information that will change your perspective on training and finally provide you with the results you seek, I don’t, sadly.

What I do have however are some words of advice that may help point you in the right direction.

– The difference between success and failure is not giving up

– You don’t get something for nothing, there’s always a price

– Patience is a trait you will need in abundance

– There’s no substitute for hard work

– Have faith in yourself

The process of creating life long change isn;t an easy one.

You might want to be more muscular, learner, fitter, stronger or perhaps just healthier, regardless of your goal there are certain conditions that NEED to be met and more importantly SUSTAINED if you want to not only reach the goal but keep it.

I can’t tell you any more than that, that is the truth any which way you cut it.

While I’d like to see everyone get their results, this will be reserved for a few who are tough enough to stick it out.

^^ A sentence many a man has said over the years and continues to say to this day.

“I want to be lean and strong”

^^ Something I’m pleased to announce more women are saying, it seems there has been a shift in them saying ‘I just want to be skinny’ to now learning the benefit of being lean and strong, it’s great to see.

While it is only my opinion, I feel everybody should be strong.

I’m not talking about record breaking strong, just strong enough to stay healthy and stave off the effects of ageing on the body.

These sports all centre around lifting:

– Weightlifting (olympic lifting)

– Body Building

– Powerlifting

– Strongman

– CrossFit (some may not like this one)

Did you know lifting weights can have the following positive effects on the body:

Personally I’d say the mental improvement is the pivotal one as this can have the biggest impact on a persons life in a very positive way.

However….

If you’re not an athlete and lift for health/confidence you should do it because you enjoy it, not because you feel you have to, that’s the secret to balance and long term sustainability.

Don’t eat yourself up if you miss a session, chalk it up to life and sue it as a rest day, that way you’ll be more motivated when you get to go in, excited to train in fact. Keep this in mind and you’ll find you don’t fall out of love with training.

What if lifting isn’t for you?

That’s cool, find soothing you do enjoy, here are some other options for improving strength and all achieving all the other benefits mentioned above:

It’s not a bad read, some nice simple advice and it also gives you a way to see things in a broader perspective when it comes to fitness/nutrition and goal setting.

Two things in particular have stood from the pages turned last night.

The first point:

– If you only had 3 slots of 15min to work out each week to help you achieve your goal, what would you do?

A very interesting point to make.

The premise behind it was to help people see what was not only necessary but more importantly essential to achieving success.

Now you will get a lot of people who immediately jump up and down saying things like “I can;t even warm up in that time.” or “I’d do nothing, it wouldn’t be worth it.” – both of which are actually valid points, however that’s not the purpose of the question.

The purpose is one of gaining clarity and prioritising what a person NEEDS to do sos that they actually improve, over what they WANT to do.

So who would you use those three 15min slots?

For me it would be something like this:

Workout 1:

A1 – Squat

A2 – Kettlebell Clean & Press with Load Carry walk

Workout 2:

A1 – Deadlift

A2 – Weighted Dip

Workout 3:

A1 – Clean & Jerk

A2 – Weighted Pull Up

1-6 reps depending on the how I felt and crack out as many rounds of each pairing as possible in those 15min.

A follow-up from the above.

Given what you have just written down, are you doing those things and if not, why not?

Surely you should be doing them if they are that important, right…

The second point is a nice simple one.

– The first step to success is showing up. The second is continuing to show up.

A humble lesson in consistency.

Let’s say, like above, you can only do 3x15min sessions, if you kept showing up for all of them for an extended period of time you’d get better results in the long run than someone who train intermittently and you’d immediately get better results than those who never start.

As a species we are actually quite lazy, don’t worry though, it’s a survival mechanism. We always look to find an easier more productive way to do something, so it’s not all bad because it’s helped us survive over the years.

When it comes to the journey of lifting, life & nutrition however, you need to have absolute adherence and plan the coming days accordingly.

Did you know that most people continue to have the same problems on their fitness journey year after year.

– Lack of time

– No motivation

– Endless excuses (procrastination)

Those are the common three most people face but that is not to say there are not others issues as well, however the fact that they keep reoccurring means the person in question is not making a change in their mindset or lifestyle, therein lies the problem.

The hardest change people have to make is realising and accepting that fitness is for life, not just for New Year.

It would be nice if we could all do 3-6 months of training and look great forever more, this never happens for most people, perhaps those with physical jobs have it a little differently but not desk workers.

Ask yourself how much you really want to change and why.

The reasons must be genuine otherwise you will fail again, sorry but that’s how it goes.

It is true you will need times where you take a break for a week or two, or reduce training from 4 sessions per week to 2 to allow other priorities in life to take the forefront, however you can’t just drop it and expect to keep all your hard work. When you do face times that require a slight change to your training E.G – training days dropping to 2, or perhaps the only free time you will have it 30min on your lunch 4xper week etc. You will need to use that time effectively and not fall out of the habit.

If you will find this hard then hire someone to do it for you, simple.

When you next come across problem instead of letting it rule you, see it as merely a challenge you have to work around and keep waking hard.

Achieving results is like tending to a garden, it take time, effort, consistency and care to keep healthy a flourishing. Even in harsh times of winter precautions are taken to stop it going to rag & ruin, do the same for your body, you only get one after all.

Did you know that there is technically no need to hire a coach, although t’s highly recommended. You can in fact be your own coach, all you need is the right tools, knowledge and application of them to make the life style changes you need.

There will be 3 things covered in the next few posts to help you achieve this, be sure to check back for more. We all know that there must be a goal but often the means of HOW to achieve this goal are not really taken in to account, this is where our first strategy comes in to play.

1 – Outcome & Behaviour Setting

The title might seem confusing but the overall premise and application are quite easy. First up you need to set your outcome, then the behaviours you will undergo that week to achieve said outcome. Now this will be done on multiple endeavours each week, however you also make this a long term goal setting process as well.

The structure is simple, as you can see. All you need do is write your Outcome followed by the 3 actions for behaviour – Month/Week/Day and stick to them. Take some time and write out the first desired outcome, then update the monthly/weekly/daily behaviour as needed.